Minced Beef Baked Rice with Mozzarella Cheese

My three lovely kids simply love cheese, any type of food as long as it comes with cheese, seems to enhance their appetite almost instantly!

As a working mother, it has been and always will be a challenge to provide delicious and nutritious dishes for the kids. I don't want to bore them with weekly all-in-one menus but it is a challenge to create out-of-the-box menus.

I have always wanted to include baking dishes in my menu but sadly, was unable to do so as I don't possess an oven. I only own a microwave oven which essentially is good for warming food but not for baking :(

For this baked rice dish (prepared on 30 Dec 2011), I attempted using the microwave to create the 'melting cheese' effect typically seen on baked rice. Oh well, beggars can't be choosy! But I don't mind praises for being innovative hahaha ;p

Overall, the dish was okay...only thing is I over estimated the portion:P but well....I should be thankful that there were no complaints from my hubby and kids though haha...

Ingredients (8 pax share):

- 300 grams frozen minced beef, rinse once with tap water and once with hot water, then set aside (I got the frozen ones as it can be kept longer so if I didn't get a chance to cook this weekend, I can keep for next weekend. I got mine from NTUC XTRA. Typically okay as my kids don't reject. In fact, they loved it!)
- 250 grams frozen mixed vegetables (or you could prepare your own, which is cheaper, cut the carrots in small cubes etc and throw in some potatoes in small cubes too if you like. I usually get Watties (from New Zealand) from the supermart.)
- 200 grams mozzarella cheese, sliced (it's pretty sticky so I opted to slice it. Faster and easier. You can also choose those already sliced or in cube forms but they are more expensive.)
- 1 can baked beans
- 1 medium size onion, chopped finely
- Rice
- Salt to taste
- Water
- Cooking oil

How to cook:

(1) Rice
- Cook the rice as per usual method but with slightly more water/
(2) Mixed Vegeatbles
- Boil a pot of water for the mixed vegetables.
- When water is boiled, pour the mixed vegetables into the pot and add a pinch of salt into the water. -
- Leave it to boil over medium heat for about 10mins. then scoop up and set aside.

(3) Minced Meat
- Heat the wok with cooking oil.
- Add diced onion once wok is heated.
- Add the minced beef once onions turns brown, add some water then fry over medium heat.
- Keep stirring to break up any lumps of meat.
- Add salt to taste.
- When minced beef is half done, add the baked beans and pour in enough water to cover the meat. Continue stirring till minced beef is 3/4 done (medium cooked), scoop up and set aside.

(4) Once Steps (1) to (3) are done, scoop the rice into a corningware. It cannot be fully filled up (about 3/4 filled up with rice).
- Add the minced beef with baked beans to fully cover the top of the rice.
- Spread the sliced mozarella cheese over the minced beef mixture.
- Put the entire pot into microwave oven and start the oven. (The one thing I regreted was I didnt monitor the timing. I did short intervals of 10 mins heating on-off to check on the 'status' of the cheese. I stopped the microwave oven once the cheese is melted to my desired level.)
- Sprinkle the mixed vegetables on top of the rice before serving.

Note: Remember you have to eat the baked rice piping hot otherwise its not gonna be the same!

Soupy Fried Mee Suan (煮炒Style)

Had been busy cooking for Trenyce during the weekend (1st May09) spent with her. Didnt touch outside food at all for once for a weekend! Cooked this soupy fried mee suan for her becos Trenyce loves noodles...well, I guess thats becos she only has porridge and rice during the weekdays so perhaps noodles are kind of an innovation to her. Actually this was the 2nd time I cooked this for her. The first time was just the week before and hubby also kind of like it too =p Hubby even commented that if i were to open a stall to sell this noodles surely will go bankrupt cos I put in some much ingredients hahahaa....

I learned about this dish when I have my lunch at Chinatown market one of the days. Initially I thought it was 生面 (crispy noodle) but the singnage on the stall said it was mee suan (面线)...yah lah, it was slightly 'thinner' than 生面. Then one day, I went to a wet market in AMK and saw the exact same noodles. Asked the seller uncle and was told it was mee suan (面线). So thats how I embarked on the journey to prepare this noodle dish.

Ingredients (6 pax share):

- 8 pieces of mee suan (There is 5 pieces in each packet that I bought. Depending on individual, I gave 1.5pieces to the guys and 1 piece to the ladies).
- Chicken or pork bones.
- Some vegetables (caixin/spinach/lettuce, I use caixin).
- Carrot, sliced.
- Garlic, chopped finely.
- Fishcake, sliced.
- Meat (Sliced/minced pork or chicken, I use sliced pork), seasoned with soya sauce, sesame oil & starch powder.
- Prawns, seasoned with soya sauce, pinch of starch powder & sugar.
- 4 eggs of average size.
- 4 tablespoons of starch powder, mixed with a bowl of water.
- Salt to taste.
- Pinch of pepper (for each serving, optional).
- Cooking oil.
- Water.

How to cook:

- Separately, boil 1 pot (average sized pot) of water in advance. Can use chicken or pork bones to prepare the stock/soup base to be used as gravy for the noodles.
- Heat the wok with cooking oil.
- Add in the garlic once the wok is heated.
- Put in the vege/carrot once the garlic turns slightly brownish and add in some water.
- Then add in the fishcake.
- Fried for a while and take out the vege, set aside.
- When the stock boils, add in the meat.
- When the meat is cooked, add in the prawns then the eggs and keep stirring the stock.
- Once it boils, add in the vege dish that was prepared earlier.
- Finally, add in the starch mixture to thicken the gravy and salt to taste.
- When the stock thickens, turn off the fire and its ready to be served.

How to Serve:

- Put the mee suan in the plate and pour the gravy over the mee suan.
- Add the pepper and the mee suan is ready to be served.

Teochew Fish Porridge

Trenyce loves this Teochew fish porridge. Me too! =p So whats the difference between Teochew fish porridge and normal fish porridge? The difference is in the rice. For normal fish porridge, the rice is cooked together with the fish but for teochew style, you cook the rice and the fish soup separately. You only add in the soup over the rice when you want to serve the food.

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- 2 batang fish fillets, sliced (keep the fish bones to boil the soup)
- 2 average-size young gingers, 1 'hammered' to throw into the soup to remove the fishy smell and the other to be sliced (to add into the porridge when served)
- A handful of wolfberries
- 2 tomatoes (average size, sliced)
- 1 tsp Sesame oil (for each serving)
- 1 tbsp Soya sauce (for each serving)
- Pinch of pepper (for each serving)
- Salt (optional)
- Water
- Some vegetables (caixin/spinach/lettuce, I use caixin)
- 4 handfuls rice, cooked

How to cook:

- Cook 1 pot (average sized pot) of water
- When the water is about half-boiled, add in the fish bones and ginger.
- When it boils, add in the fish slices and wolfberries.
- Sieve the fish slices from the soup once its cook.
- Add the vegetables into the soup and bring it to boil.
- Sieve the vegetables from the soup once its cook.
- Add in the salt and turn off the fire.

How to Serve:

- Scoop the rice.
- Add in the fish slices, ginger, tomatoes and caixin.
- Pour the soya sauce and sesame oil over the fish slices.
- Pour the soup over and add the pepper. The fish porridge is ready to be served.

ABC Soup

We started dinner catering about 3 months ago, one week after I returned to work. Eversince we had home catered food, Trenyce doesnt get much chance to have nice home cooked soup. Hence, I decided to cook at least once every weekend. No major cooking just simple dishes. Even if I have no time to cook any meals over the weekends, I will try to boil some soup for her.

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 
Ingredients (4 pax share):

- 350 to 400grams pork ribs
(Rather than throwing the entire piece of ribs into the soup, I like to cut the meat away from the ribs and chopped into smaller pieces before I throw both in so that I can feed my girl straight away :p).
- 1 large carrot, cut into cubes
- 3 potatoes of medium size, chopped into cubes
- 2 maize, each chopped into approx 4-5 pieces
- half a can button mushrooms, each mushroom cut into half
- 2 sticks lemon grass, 'hammered' the end so that the fragnant can come out easily
- 1 big onion, sliced
- Salt to taste
- water

How to cook:

- Cook 1 pot (average sized pot) of water
- When the water is about half-boiled, add in the pork ribs, maize, lemon grass and onion.
- Before adding the pork ribs, rinse them with hot water twice. Remove the water when it turns milky. (This is to remove the pork 'smell'.)*
- When it boils, add in rest of ingredients; potatoes, carrot and button mushrooms and turn to smaller fire.
- Stir the ingredients to make sure that they are well covered with the water and leave it to boil slowly.
- About half an hour later, add in the salt and turn off the fire. The soup is ready to be served.

PS: The lemon grass is optional. It is to improve the fragnant of the soup as well as aids in our digestion systems. It is well known for relieving 'air' in our body system. You can also add in tomatoes:)

Btw, this makes a wonderful confinement dish too!

Red Bean Soup

I cooked this red bean soup for my family few weekends ago (13July08). Yeah, I knew its quite some time back and I only have time to update it now :p

This is a special red bean soup I invented myself using dried rose buds to get the flavor instead of the usual pandan leaf. I kind of like this invention and so sharing this with everyone :)

Its simple to cook...the exact way to cook with the pandan leaf except replace the pandan leaf with the dried rose buds.

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- 3 handfuls of red bean
- 1 small handful of dried rose buds
- 2 pieces cane sugar, medium size
- water

How to cook:

- Wash and soak the red beans for at least two hours before cooking (so that the beans can soften faster when cooking).
- Boil a pot (average size) of water and add in the red beans and rose buds.
- When the water boils, put to small fire and simmer for another hour.
- Add in the cane sugar and stir till it dissolves. If you find the soup too thick, you may add more boiled water to thin it and its ready to be served. If you like it cold, you may add in ice and serve as a cold dessert.

Notes:
1. You may also add in dried tangerine peel (another version) or/and lily buds.

French Beans with Duck Meat

With 7% inflation hitting our purse, things are getting really expensive everywhere hence it is important to know how to save your every dollar. I bought this duck meat yesterday and we couldn’t finish everything for dinner last night so I kept the meat in the fridge thinking I could heat up again today for our lunch. So this morning when I was cracking brain on the dishes to prepare, the idea just came to me: combining the duck meat to the french beans.

Indeed, this makes a wonderful dish! Er, not too bad lah :p

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- A packet of fresh french beans (bought from supermarket), each French bean sliced into threes.
- 1 carrot (of average size), sliced
- Duck meat, sliced.
- Garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
- Water
- Salt to taste

How to cook:

- Heat the wok with cooking oil.
- Add in the garlic once the wok is heated.
- Put in the French beans once the garlic turns slightly brownish and add in some water. The water must be able to cover at least 80% of the French beans so that the beans will be cooked thoroughly. Reduce the heat slightly so that the water will not dry up so fast and leave it to boil. This will not take longer than 10mins.
- Lastly, add the duck meat and leave it to boil for another 3mins before serve on dish.

Pork Ribs w/Sweet Potatoes Porridge

Remembered I mention about preparing lunch for my girl everyday when I was a SAHM for the entire month of April 2008. Yah, this is one of the dishes I prepared for her. Trenyce loves this porridge as her favourite sweet potatoes and carrots are included! This is one healthy dish and pork ribs are good for their growth!

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- 2 handfuls of Rice, perferably use "Xing mi", washed.
(aka "new rice", a type of rice used typically for cooking porridge. If not, normal rice also can but will take slightly longer time to cook.)
- 350grams pork ribs
(Rather than throwing the entire piece of ribs into the porridge, I like to cut the meat away from the ribs and chopped into smaller pieces before I throw both into the porridge so that I can feed my girl straight away :p)
- 2 pieces of sweet potatoes of medium size, cut into cubes (of average size)
- Optional: 1 carrot (of average size), chopped into cubes
- water

How to cook:

- Cook 1 pot (average sized pot) of water together with the rice and the sweet potatoes with medium fire.
- When the water is about half-boiled, add in the pork ribs.
- Before adding the pork ribs, rinse them with hot water twice. Remove the water when it turns milky. (This is to remove the pork "smell.)*
- Stir the porridge to make sure that the meat is well covered with the water and leave it to boil.
- When it boils, turn to smaller fire and let it boils slowly. For "xing mi", it usually cooks faster roughly abt 10mins. Normal rice will take about 10mins longer.
- Afterwhich, you may turn off the fire and the porridge is ready to be served.(However, if you like the porridge to be watery and not so "sticky" then boil the porridge at a shorter time frame so instead of 15mins maybe 10mins. Pls monitor the cooking of the porridge yourself to determine the "thickness" preferred.)

*Note: If you still find the pork smell too strong for you to handle after rinsing with hot water, you can add ginger into the porridge to get rid of the smell. If you do, add in the ginger together with the pork ribs :)